This invention relates to a card connector having an eject mechanism for ejecting a card.
Recently, a plurality of kinds of cards different in size are used in various fields. Under the circumstances, there arises a demand for a card connector allowing those cards to be used in the same card connector. In this case, an eject mechanism for ejecting a card must be adaptable to such a plurality of kinds of cards. If a plurality of eject mechanisms are provided in correspondence to a plurality of kinds of cards, the card connector has a complicated structure which makes it difficult to reduce the size of the card connector. Further, in case where a card has a large width, it is desired that the eject mechanism uniformly applies an ejecting force to the card.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 7-192100 (192100/1995) discloses a card connector having upper and lower receiving portions each of which receives a card. The card connector has an eject mechanism capable of independently eject each card.
However, the above-mentioned card connector is disadvantageous in the following respects. Since the card connector includes the upper and the lower receiving portions, the height of the card connector is inevitably increased. In addition, the card connector does not assume the use of a plurality of kinds of cards different in size.
Japanese Patent application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-229207 (229207/2003) discloses another card connector having first and second card receiving portions arranged adjacent to each other in a widthwise direction. The card connector has first and second card ejecting members for ejecting first and second cards, respectively. The first card receiving portion is shorter in depth than the second card receiving portion. Behind the first card receiving portion, at least one of the first and the second card ejecting members is disposed.
The above-mentioned card connector allows two cards to be accommodated in the first and the second card receiving portions, respectively. However, the connector is not designed so as to use a single large card having a width corresponding to that of the two cards arranged in the widthwise direction.